Psalms 3–8 E1 — We’re starting a short series on Psalms 3–8, the next literary bundle following the introduction to the Psalms scroll. Psalm 3 begins with a very specific heading that informs how we should read it: “A psalm of David, when he fled fro...
Spirit of God E16 (Q+R) — Where did Jesus and his followers get the idea of being baptized by the Spirit? If we have the Spirit, do we need other people to help us understand the Bible? And when we’re filled with the Spirit, do we become more our tru...
Spirit of God E15 — Some New Testament passages present the Spirit as a distinct agent, or entity, who teaches, reminds, and even dwells within Jesus' followers. But more often, the Bible describes the Spirit as God's power, presence, or energy. So w...
Spirit of God E14 — The Gospel of John portrays the Spirit’s coming as a significant turning point, as if God’s Spirit hadn’t yet been present in the world. Jesus breathes on his followers just as God once breathed life into humanity. And Jesus promi...
Spirit of God E13 — The New Testament powerfully claims that the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead is now also at work in his followers. The Spirit gives us new desires and ways of thinking, and one day the Spirit will recreate us with new resurr...
Spirit of God E12 — In early communities of Jesus’ disciples, prophecy was a significant manifestation of the Spirit, one which continued for centuries to follow. But this wasn’t the only kind of prophecy happening in the first-century Greco-Roman wo...
Spirit of God E11 — In the book of Acts, the Holy Spirit fills Jesus’ followers at Pentecost; they are to be like a new temple of God’s presence and power. In addition to a temple, the Apostle Paul throws another metaphor into the mix: the community...
Spirit of God E10 — After Jesus' resurrection and ascension, the Holy Spirit becomes the primary way Jesus’ presence and power remains with his followers. The book of Acts demonstrates how the Spirit’s coming fulfills the Hebrew Bible’s hope for God...
Spirit of God E9 — Our conversation on the Spirit of God is turning the corner from the Hebrew Bible to the New Testament. The word for “spirit” in the Greek New Testament is pneuma, and like ruakh, it also means “wind,” “breath,” and personal energ...
Spirit of God E8 — We're halfway through our series on the Spirit of God, where we've talked about God's ruakh in the Hebrew Bible. We’ve covered a lot of ideas, many of which can be challenging for modern people to understand. So in this episode, J...
Spirit of God E7 — So far in this series, we’ve seen a pattern develop where God gives an extra measure of his ruakh to some leaders in Israel. God’s Spirit then empowers these leaders to guide the people, mediate God's covenant, and speak God's word...
Spirit of God E6 — In the biblical story, God's Spirit fills specific characters. They are to lead and organize Israel, to be priestly mediators of God's covenant, and to prophetically speak God's words to the people. We’re calling the Spirit’s speci...
Spirit of God E5 — From the first pages of Scripture, we begin hoping for an ideal human image of God who will be filled with God's Spirit to truly represent God's wisdom, word, and rule in the world. Characters like that don’t show up often, but wh...
Spirit of God E4 — So far in this series, we've looked at how the Spirit is connected to life and wisdom in the Hebrew Bible. The third most consistent idea associated with the Spirit is God's word, or speech, happening through a human; the Bible ca...
Spirit of God E3 — We’ve discovered in this series so far that God’s Spirit, or ruakh in Hebrew, creates and sustains all life, moment by moment. Another key way the Spirit works in the world is by filling humans with wisdom. But in each story of the...
